Holiday Hijinks
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: A series of short Christmas snippets, mostly Sevasey though not exclusively, some chapters connected to others, some are unrelated oneshots.
1. Chapter 1

Holiday Hijinks

Secret Santa

"Okay, so everybody knows how this works, everybody's name's in the helmet, whoever's name you draw, that's the person you buy for," Herrmann said, "and no telling who you got, and then everybody brings their gift the last shift before Christmas since we're off this year."

Everybody took a turn and one by one they all pulled out folded scraps of paper, everybody unfolded them long enough to see who they got, then refolded them so nobody else could see. Some looked one way and another, trying not to make it a dead giveaway who they got, but their body language indicating everybody got a challenge this year.

"Trade with me," Casey told Severide later as they separated from the others and walked through the corridor to head to the locker room.

"Is that allowed?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know and I don't care, trade with me," Casey said.

"How come?" Kelly wanted to know.

"I got Brett, I don't know what to get her." He shoved his in Kelly's hand and took Severide's out of his pocket, "Who'd you get?"

"Capp," Severide answered.

"Trade me back, trade me back," Casey said as he swapped the scraps of paper again.

Kelly just laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

Christmas Lights

"You think it's stupid, don't you?"

Kelly snapped his mouth shut before responding, "No...no, I don't."

But the pause between Casey's words and his own had been enough to create more than reasonable doubt for the blonde lieutenant.

"You think it's stupid," Casey repeated.

Kelly didn't make it a habit of going to Casey's room in the middle of the night, but he'd been woken up because the ice-maker in the freezer got stuck, and while he _thought_ he knew how to make it stop, he didn't want to risk doing the wrong thing and breaking something and then having to tell Casey about it. So instead he'd gone to Matt's room, knocked on the door, and when Casey answered he told him what was going on and the two went back to the kitchen to see what was the matter. Casey had to pour hot water over the top of the machine for the nerve wracking clanking noise to finally stop and the ice to drop. That over with, Casey went back to his room but hadn't shut the door yet, and Kelly had stepped in to mention something for tomorrow before he forgot, and that was when he'd noticed the lights in Casey's room weren't from the ceiling, or even the lamp by the bed. Instead it came from several LED touch lights placed around the room, one on the dresser, one on the night stand, one on the trunk, another mounted on a nail on the wall. Severide looked around at them curiously, and it took him a minute to figure out what it meant, and as he looked around the room, Casey's eyes had followed the direction he turned in, and with no words exchanged between them, he knew that Kelly knew.

"If you breathe a word of this to anybody at 51, I will kill you," Casey told him.

"I wasn't going to say anything," Kelly replied, "but...can I ask what it's about?"

Casey sat on the edge of his bed and sighed as he looked at the floor. Then he looked at Kelly and explained, "All the times we were in a fire with zero visibility...all the times I dream we're still back there, the people we can't save, our air running out, the structure about to collapse...the times I wake up screaming, remembering those calls...if there's light, then I know I'm not still back there."

Kelly didn't say anything for a minute, then finally he asked, "And you think nobody at 51 would understand that?"

"It's pathetic, Kelly," Casey said, "Do you really think Herrmann, or Boden, or Mouch, needs a night light?"

"Well at their ages it might be possible for all those trips to the can," Kelly said half jokingly. When he could see it wasn't getting the reaction he intended, he switched tactics and became more serious.

"You know how many people sleep with their phones right next to them? Nobody sleeps in total darkness anymore, Casey," Kelly told him. "Besides, it's a good idea to be able to see where you're going when you get up in the middle of the night, saves you the trouble of kicking all the furniture on the way back from the bathroom."

Casey cupped his hands over his mouth and let out a moaning yawn, then with eyes half open he told Severide, "I just want to get back to sleep."

Kelly merely nodded, "Okay, sorry to get you up."

Casey murmured something as he crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up, but he was quickly out of it.

* * *

Casey felt half asleep and was content to stay where he was and try for the other half. He felt the soft, warm covers over him and the soft pillow behind his head and he was aware of his slow and even breathing. Against his closed eyelids he felt a sensation of light, a feeling he had grown used to over the months when he first started using the touch lights at night. At first it had kept him awake since he _had_ been used to sleeping in the dark, but after a while it stopped bothering him and he was able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat when they were on.

"Casey...hey, Casey."

"Hmmmm?" Casey forced hie eyes open and saw his room was lit up, far brighter than from the touch lights. He slowly turned his head, still not fully awake, and suddenly became fully awake when he saw Severide standing by his window, which the entire frame had been wrapped around with Christmas lights, both clear and color.

"What the hell are you doing?" Casey asked as he slowly sat up in the bed.

All Kelly was willing to say was, "Hey, it's Christmas, this looks a lot better."

"A lot brighter too," Casey rubbed his eyes.

"That's the idea."

"You are a strange man, Kelly Severide, you know that?" Casey asked as he looked at him.

Kelly just stood there with a wide grin on his face, looking like he was trying not to start laughing.

"And the good thing is they don't have to come down in three weeks," he added, "You can keep them up until they finally burn out."

Things were slowly coming to Matt as he tried to figure out what was going on, and it finally clicked for him, "You did this..._while_ I was sleeping?"

"I was quiet," Kelly said.

He'd taken the liberty of pounding the nails in place to latch the light strings onto earlier that day when Casey had been out, then once he was sure Matt was in a dead sleep, he crept in with two new boxes of lights and carefully unraveled them and looped them on the nails until they spanned the entire window frame, and he'd taken the fact that Casey never stirred once when the 200 bulbs lit up the room as a good sign that it wouldn't be anymore distracting than the LEDs has been. He'd spent the last couple days thinking about what Casey said since he'd found out about the lights, and while Matt's idea hadn't been a bad one, Kelly thought given the season, he could come up with something better. For the time being he'd shut off the LEDs and retired them to a drawer until the Christmas lights came down.

Casey was quiet for a minute, then he shook his head like he couldn't believe it, and told Severide, "Thanks, Kelly...it's..." he looked towards the window again, "it's nice."

Then he thought of something else and asked the Squad lieutenant, "What time is it?"

"3:30, go back to sleep," Kelly said as he headed towards the door.

Casey flopped his head back against the pillow tiredly laughing.


	3. Chapter 3

Fruitcake Follies

"Okay," Otis told the theater employee manning the concession stand, "Two large popcorns, two large Dr. Peppers, one order of nachos with cheese, one pretzel with cheese, and one box of Junior Mints."

He paid for the food and as he picked up his share of it, said, "Next time I pay for the tickets and you buy the snacks."

"Uh huh," Capp mindlessly replied as he tipped his head down and started eating the popcorn sticking over the top of his bag.

"Theater room 4," Otis said as he looked at the flashing neon dots compiling the signs over each door, "this way. Remind me again how I got stuck with you to see this movie?"

"Everybody else had plans," Capp answered.

Otis rolled his eyes.

The two firefighters made their way into the darkened theater room that had scarce lighting to see by from the screen showing a preview for an upcoming film. Looking around, the seats on the ground floor were half full, and looking behind them up the stairs to the balcony seats, they saw people scattered all over, but most of the seats were vacant.

"Let's take the middle row," Otis said, "the view should be good enough there."

Heading up the steps dimly illuminated by small lights built into the wall beside them, they got halfway up and found two unoccupied chairs and made themselves comfortable while they waited for the movie to start. Around them they heard people quietly murmuring, others were not so quiet about it, people were loudly munching their popcorn, and some people were on their phones, which sent blinding blue lights into the otherwise darkness of the theater.

"I thought this place had a zero tolerance policy for cell phones," Otis commented.

"So complain," Capp said.

"By the time I get down there and back, the movie will already be starting."

"So complain to _them_," Capp gestured to the people on their phones.

"Oh yeah, I can see how well that would go over," Brian replied.

Somebody behind them coughed. A couple people were already getting up to go down the stairs and return to the concession stand for another bag of popcorn before the show started.

The opening credits were just starting when somebody else started coughing. And the noise didn't stop, instead it got louder and more frantic. The two firefighters turned in their seats and saw a woman a couple rows from the top writhing in her seat choking. They dropped their stuff and ran up the stairs, by now other people also realized what was going on and they ordered the bystanders back in the aisles to clear the way so they could work. Otis got the woman to her feet and started performing the Heimlich maneuver, after a few tries she let out a particularly loud retch and a wad of half chewed popcorn shot out of her mouth and went flying down into the next aisle. The woman let out a ragged breath as she went limp against Brian.

"Are you okay, ma'am?"

She wheezed once and answered as she pushed away from him, "Yeah, fine, just, I just," she heaved another breath as she collapsed back in her seat, "Picked the wrong time to inhale." She shook her head and looked up at them and said, still trying to catch her breath, "Thank you...oh my God that was so scary..."

An usher and the theater manager entered the room and came up the stairs to find out what was going on, it took a few tries with all three of them talking but the details finally got out, and once the woman assured them she was fine, the commotion died down, and once the manager left, everybody tried to get back to the movie since there was nothing more to see _there_.

"You...you're both firemen?" the woman asked them.

"Yes we are."

"Which firehouse?"

"51."

They didn't have any further words with the woman and thought everything was going to be left there.

* * *

"Where'd these come from?" Mouch asked as everybody spotted a large tray of cupcakes on the table in the common room.

Herrmann had been the first one in that day and he told the others, "First Watch said somebody brought them in about 10 minutes before we got here."

"And they didn't eat them before we got in?" Tony asked, then thought to add, "What's wrong with them?"

Cruz picked up one and sniffed it and shrugged, "Smells alright."

One by one everybody picked up one and bit into the frosted tops, then soon everybody was looking at each other.

"That doesn't taste like a cupcake," Otis said.

"What's that stuff inside?" Mouch asked. "Is that a raisin?"

"They're not bad, whatever they are," Casey said.

Nobody could argue with that.

Boden had just entered the room to say something when they heard somebody talking. Boden turned around and saw a brunette woman in her early 30s heading their way carrying a big platter with covered dishes on them.

"Excuse me," she said as she entered the room. She looked past Boden and saw the half-empty tray on the table, "Oh I got here too late, I'm so sorry, my daughter said she'd drop these off on her way to school and she took the wrong tray."

"I'm sorry, can we help you?" Boden asked.

The woman paused, then laughed and explained, "I'm Lara Durning, my sister, Lisa, and I were at the movies last night and two of the firemen from this house stepped in to help when she started choking."

Otis and Capp glanced at each other. They didn't remember anybody being with the woman last night, but then again everything had happened so quick and it was so confusing with everybody else getting worked up, it's possible they just overlooked her.

"Them!" Lara raised her knee to support the tray as she moved her hand to point at the two of them, "They're the ones. Lisa had an appointment today or she would've come herself, but we wanted to show our gratitude for what they did, so we baked you a batch of our family recipe fruitcakes."

"Oh," Boden was automatically thinking what everybody else in the room was thinking, but unlike the others who looked around at each other with looks of dread, he maintained a professional expression and position as he tried to gently break the news to the woman, "We appreciate that, but I'm afraid we're not too big on fruitcake."

The woman did a double take and inquired, "Are you sure?" She pointed over to Severide and added, "Looks like that guy's sucked down about half a dozen of them already."

Kelly immediately stopped in mid-bite of another cupcake and got out a muffled, "You mean...that's fruitcake?" He immediately grimaced, turned and spat out the mouthful in the wastebasket.

Lara giggled and asked the Squad lieutenant, "Did you ever see a cupcake with green cherries in it?" She looked at Boden and explained, "That was my daughter's idea for a joke, let people think they're getting a cupcake, until they bite into it and realize it's a fruitcake."

Mouch picked up another cupcake from the tray, peeled the paper off it and tore it open down the middle and looked in it and scrutinized the contents. All he saw was yellow cake and chopped bits of red, green and orange candied fruit, and a few raisins, and he asked the woman, "Where're the nuts?"

"Aren't any," she answered.

"Where's the spices?"

"Aren't any."

Herrmann took a whiff of it, smelling only butter and a hint of orange juice, and asked, "Where's the booze?"

"Ain't any," Lara answered. "That's why people actually like them."

"I see, well," Boden took the tray from the woman, which he realized was carrying three full sized fruitcakes on it and told the woman, "Thank you very much, ma'am, I think these are going to be a big hit after all."

"You're welcome, and Merry Christmas," she said as she turned to show herself out.

"Fruitcake?" Otis asked. He took the lid off one of the new cakes and saw it was shaped like a loaf of bread and already sliced to pieces. "Huh...and here I thought all fruitcakes were a bouncing rubber brick you gave the mailman."

"Begging the question, what did the mailman ever do to you?" Mouch wanted to know.


	4. Chapter 4

Christmas Ornaments

Kelly was on his way to bed when he passed by the door to Casey's room and saw it was open and lights were on. He poked his head in and saw Casey in bed, half curled on his side with his pillow curled under his face. His eyes were looking in Severide's general direction but didn't appear to actually see him.

"Casey?" Kelly asked as he stepped into the room and padded over to the bed, "You feeling alright, buddy?"

"I don't want to go tomorrow," Casey said, his words half muffled by the pillow. "Can't we just forget about it?"

Kelly sat on the edge of the bed and patted Casey's back and asked him, "What's the matter, Casey?"

"I don't want to do this," Matt told him.

Severide didn't understand it, and he honestly couldn't figure out what the big deal was.

It had been over a year now since Casey's apartment was burnt down, and he'd been staying with Kelly ever since. In light of what happened, last year had been a sparse Christmas. This year Casey had finally found a place of his own, had moved out, though Kelly frequently showed himself in and helped himself to staying the night in the guest room. And Severide had mentioned since things were going so well this year by comparison, Casey ought to get a tree and decorate, really make the place look alive for the holidays. They'd planned to go to the store in the morning, get an artificial tree, and some new ornaments for it.

He had a good idea he was walking on eggshells, still he felt he had to do a little prodding to get to the bottom of it.

"What's the problem, Casey?"

"You don't get it," Matt said, and turned his head to better see Kelly, "I lost _everything_ in that fire."

"I _know_, Matt."

"No, you don't. Everything included all the decorations I had, the ones that were in my family for generations, the ones my niece made me in her art class, the ones that Gabby and I bought together...all of them, all the memories, gone. Now I'm just supposed to get something new and pretend it's the same? It's not."

Kelly thought about it and nodded. He hadn't thought about it like that, then again he'd never had any reason to, he didn't have a past like that, he wasn't left with a whole lot of stuff that held any sentimental value.

"I get that," he told Casey, "I can see why that'd be hard...but this is a new beginning, Casey, new year, new home, new everything, you can start on new memories."

Casey let out a cynical laugh, "You make it sound so easy."

"It's easier than that, it happens when you're not paying attention," Kelly pointed out. "I'll tell you what, we'll go out tomorrow, and we'll just look around and see if anything sticks out for you. You might be surprised."

Casey thought about it and shrugged, "I suppose so."

"Hey," Kelly leaned down and lightly kissed Casey just above his hairline. "Go to sleep."

Matt snorted and elbowed Kelly, who ignored it and pulled the covers up over Casey to his shoulders.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

* * *

They went to the store early in the morning to beat most of the Christmas shoppers, and they found a decent looking 7.5 foot tree that already had a set of clear lights on it and put it in the cart, and they found some additional boxes of colored lights, and a few reams of golden tinsel garland to wrap around the tree from top to bottom. They'd even found a light-up star covered in gold metallic tinsel to match the garland. That had been the easy part. Casey stood in front of the shelves with boxes of 4-packed identical ornament balls, and just stared at them, not picking up any for a closer look, just looked at them. Kelly stood beside him and watched him, he made no suggestions, he wanted to see what Casey was going to do of his own volition.

Finally he turned to Kelly and said as he shook his head, "I can't do this, I'm sorry."

Kelly hadn't really been surprised. "It's okay."

"Let's just get this, and..."

"A thought," Kelly poked him to get his attention.

"What?" Casey asked.

"What about a thrift store? They get tons of stuff for Christmas. Somebody else's lifetime of memories that now need a new home."

Casey looked at him for a minute and concluded, "You're a weird man, Kelly Severide."

Kelly chuckled.

"But it might not be a bad idea," Casey said.

* * *

"People have no idea what they just throw away," Kelly said as he carried several flat boxes of ornaments into the apartment and set them on the table.

Casey walked in behind him, carrying a larger box full of assorted shaped decorations, supporting the box with one arm he reached in and pulled out a red, green and gold metallic glitter painted beaded ornament. It spun on its hook and swung around one way, then the other, and the blonde lieutenant just stared at it as if in a trance from it.

"Casey."

"Hm?" He lowered the ornament and looked at Kelly.

"You want to put that down?"

Casey snapped back to the here and now and set the box on the table alongside the balls Kelly had brought in.

They'd certainly cleaned up at the thrift shop, some of the ornaments were well worn from years of use, paint had chipped off, glass had dulled, years had been smudged off, others still looked fairly new, they'd gotten entire sets of red and green balls, and a box of old purple and gold acrylic balls. Casey's box contained a four pointed silver glitter star, a five pointed gold glitter star, an old, huge, plastic silver crescent moon with a face on it, a red and gold glitter painted drum, a rhinestone poinsettia, and an antique miniature brass bell with a distinctive ring anytime the clanger in it moved. It wouldn't decorate the whole tree, but it'd look a lot better than just garland and lights.

Kelly had been right, Casey didn't have any idea how it worked, but he'd been right, it had been a lot easier to pick out ornaments that had belonged to somebody else, that already had an established history, that even though he had no way of knowing what it was, he took a strange comfort in knowing whoever they had previously belonged to, they wouldn't just sit around neglected. In a sense he felt it would in some way keep the memories alive that had been established in them over the years.

"Hey," Kelly's voice interrupted his thoughts, "Do you mind if we wait till after next shift to decorate it?"

Casey shook his head, "No, any particular reason?"

"Nah, just figured it'd be nicer if we didn't have to be on shift in a few hours after finishing it," Kelly answered. "We can get a pizza, watch a movie while we put it up."

"I can just guess which one," Casey replied, "Gremlins."

"Nah, 'The Grinch'."

"Again? How many times can you watch that movie?" Casey asked.

"It's funny!" Kelly responded.

"I _know_ that," Casey said, "That's not the point."

* * *

"Hey Kelly," Casey said 2 nights later when he walked through the door carrying two boxes of pizza, "I picked up dinner..." He stopped when he saw a sheet draped over the table, covering something. "What's that?"

Kelly came over and took the boxes from Casey and merely said in response, "Why don't you find out?"

Casey looked at him, then looked back at the table, and grabbed the corner of the sheet and pulled it up in one swift movement.

A dozen different Christmas ornaments rested on the table.

"What the..." Casey turned to Kelly and asked him, "What did you do?"

"I got a little help," Kelly answered.

"What?"

"I asked the guys at 51 if they could find any old ornaments they wanted to contribute to your first Christmas in your new home...they came through," Kelly explained.

Casey was at a loss for words and it took him a couple minutes to fully process what Kelly had said. He bent over the table and examined the ornaments one by one, very closely.

The first one he picked up was a very unusual one made out of a white silky material that looked like some kind of corsage with the ribbon looped over in several bands.

"What's this one?"

"Otis sent that one, he said it's something from back home in Russia," Kelly said. "It's been in his family for years."

Casey examined it from all angles, and still wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but he just stared at it for a couple minutes, and then finally laid it back down and sorted through the rest.

One stuck out as particularly new, and Casey guessed, from the Hallmark collection.

"Let me guess," Casey said as he picked up the Minion ornament, "this one's from Capp, right?"

"Nope, Brett," Kelly answered. He pointed to an old bell made from green and white beads, complete with a beaded loop to hang it from, and said, "This one's from Capp, his mother got it from a friend who made it about 30 years ago."

There were others, two large, heavy jingle bells, one green, one red, on matching plaid hangers tied in bows, an antique glass bell shaped ornament that was a dull teal blue, a gray and white ball with the 3 Wise Men on camels painted on it, dated 1939, a hand painted snowman ornament made out of ping pong balls glued together and covered in gold glitter paint, he guessed one of Herrmann's kids did it in school. A dark green ball with tiny pine cones and holly berries glued on the top. An old off-white ball with playing kittens painted on it in green. A tiny red and white stocking with a loop of matching white fur to hang from a branch.

"And this one's mine," Kelly said as he held something in his balled up hand.

He handed it to Casey, who looked and saw it was a small metal picture frame ornament with the year on it, and an old picture in it of the two of them years ago when they were fresh out of the academy.

"You...you thought of all this?" Casey asked, in mild disbelief.

"I have my moments," Kelly said with a small smirk.

Casey let out a small laugh, and turned and put one arm around Kelly in an awkward hug.

"Thank you."

"So, you want to eat and then do the tree?" Kelly asked, "Or do the tree first and then heat up dinner?"

Casey thought about it for a minute.

"Let's eat first, the tree's not going anywhere," he said.

"We _hope_," Kelly replied.


	5. Chapter 5

Stocking Stuffer

"Severide."

"Yeah?"

"What is this?" Casey asked as he pointed to the large red and white stocking hanging from a push-pin on the wall.

Kelly entered the living room and looked at it, and closely scrutinized every detail as if he was trying to determine what it was. Finally he turned to Casey and answered nonchalantly, "It's a stocking, Matt."

"I know that," Casey replied in an annoyed tone. "What's it doing here?"

Kelly shrugged his shoulders cluelessly, "I don't know...guess you have to open it up to find out."

There was something in his tone that let Casey know Kelly was in on whatever this was. He looked at the slightly bulging sock and cautiously reached in, and he felt something, he pulled the top open wider and looked in and pulled out small folded up packs of scratch-off lottery tickets.

"What's this?"

"Not solely my idea," Kelly answered. "Stella's been trying them lately, and she hasn't had much luck, but she thought maybe they'd be worth trying."

Casey unfolded the stacks of $1 and $2 tickets, he couldn't right offhand calculate what Kidd must've spent on them.

"Well, let's check them out."

They sat down at the coffee table and bent over the tickets, scratching the latex off with a couple quarters.

Casey looked at one of his $2 tickets and said to Severide, "I got a candy cane on this one, what's that mean?"

Kelly looked at his and answered, "Whatever the prize is, that's it."

"Okay, well that one paid for itself," Casey scratched off the barcode and put it to the side.

They each scratched through five of the Christmas themed tickets and only found up with a couple of free winners. Then they moved on to a $1 ticket.

"Shouldn't it be a rule if you actually get the symbol you're looking for, you get more than the price of the ticket?" Casey asked.

"Get something?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah, a money bag for a free ticket," Casey said as he scratched off the barcode and put it on top of the other winners.

"Hey, get enough of them and they'll all pay for themselves," Kelly replied, "Hey, I got a 2X."

"For what?" Casey asked.

"$2.00," he answered.

Casey snorted.

They scratched through the rest of them and at the last one, Casey paused and looked at his.

"I got a 5X," he said.

"Cool, you got five bucks?"

Casey handed him the ticket. Kelly looked at the bold 5X, and then felt his eyes widen at the prize underneath it.

$100.

"Son of a bitch, you won $500?"

"Shh," Casey said with a smirk, "we won't tell Kidd. We'll get her her money back on them and split the rest."

"Sounds like a plan," Kelly said. "What're you going to do with your half?"

"Get everything for Christmas dinner."


	6. Chapter 6

Dashing Through the Stores

The automatic sliding doors of the supermarket opened as Herrmann, Casey, Severide, Capp, Tony, Boden and Chaplain Orlovsky entered the building. It was going on 9 o' clock in the morning and there wasn't much of a crowd yet, though they did spot a few familiar faces coming down the aisles. Otis, Cruz and Mouch made their way over to the others.

"Well?" Casey asked.

"Nothing yet, they said they'd draw at 9," Otis said.

"Where is everybody?" Severide asked.

"In the manager's office," Cruz pointed the way.

Everybody at Firehouse 51 had signed up for a grocery grab being held at the supermarket, orchestrated by one of the local charity groups. Everybody paid $5 a ticket for a chance to run through the store and grab as much food as possible in five minutes. Proceeds from the tickets were going to buy new books for the kids at an elementary school. Five days ago it had been announced on shift that two of 51's members had made the 3 finalists: Tony, and Herrmann. As of yet they didn't know who the third finalist was, but they'd been told the run would start at 9 A.M., so everybody made it a point to show up early.

"I just wanna say," Mouch spoke up, "This is _not_ gonna be like those videos on Youtube. We've been over the place, they have whole aisles taped off."

"No soap, no razor blades, no deodorant, no detergent, no diapers, no paper goods, no baby formula, just groceries," Otis said.

"Well that sucks," Herrmann said.

"The charity group running it writes a check to cover everything grabbed during the run to compensate the store. And I get the impression they're not expecting a big payout," Cruz said, "the winner last year only racked up $500 worth of groceries."

"Only?" Kelly asked.

"And they only give you one minute to go through the meat section," Otis added. "There is _no_ way to cover it end to end in 60 seconds."

Casey folded his arms and inquired, "What happens if a vegetarian wins it?"

"Can you imagine if a vegan won it?" Tony asked, "That'd be one aisle."

"Not even."

Their conversation was broken up as several people headed their way. A white haired man with glasses announced to everybody, "We are now going to draw the winner for the 2019 grocery grab. The winner will have five minutes to run through the store and grab as much food as possible, they will get one minute back at the meat counter, and the products that don't qualify have been roped off. Only one person can do the run, when a cart is filled they have to bring it back here the checkout register, then get another cart and go back. We have here today our three finalists, Nicolette Parker, Tony Ferraris, and Christopher Herrmann."

The people surrounding them applauded the finalists. Nicolette Parker was a 30-something year old dirty blonde wearing a college sweatshirt and blue jeans, and she didn't exchange words with the firemen but she offered a friendly smile.

The old man continued, "The second place finalist will receive a $100 gift certificate for the store, and the third place finalist will receive a $50 certificate. We're ready to draw."

Somebody had a baseball cap with the names in it and drew the name out for first place, "Christopher Herrmann."

The store erupted in a round of applause, particularly the people from 51. When the runner up's name was drawn, Tony came in second place.

Herrmann went over to the first cart that was ready for use and turned it towards the produce section at the front. Then the store manager told him he was to turn the other way and head back to the meat section first so they could get that over with. Herrmann turned the cart towards the back of the store and got ready. Otis took his phone out and set the stopwatch function.

"Go!"

Herrmann was off and running with everybody else trailing behind him. In a few seconds he made his way to the meat count and started grabbed armfuls of roasts and steaks off the shelves and tossed them into the cart, pushing it as he moved, grabbing slabs of ribs, dropping them in with a reverberating _clang_, hauling 10-pound loin of pork roasts and throwing them in as well, he grabbed two briskets each marked $75.00 and heaved them in as well. He just started grabbing packs of bacon when Otis called out, "Five seconds, Herrmann!"

Christopher ran to the end of the aisle, without even looking, grabbed the biggest whole ham there was, dumped it on top of the rest of the meat and ran back towards the checkout register. The checkers took his first cart and handed him another and he went back the way he'd came and headed for the refrigerated section. He reached one arm up and flung every box of brand name butter off the top row into the cart, then grabbed the biggest bags of cheese, and on the other side of the aisle, he grabbed up 6-packs of Ensure and Boost, spilled them on top of the rest. He ran to the end of the aisle and went back through the front of the store to reach the checkout lane, on the way snagging 5-pound bags of oranges, apples and grapefruits, the contents of the cart were just about to topple over when he reached checkout and handed it over, then got the next cart. He took a shortcut through the combination soda/chip/cookie/cracker/bread/jelly aisle, pouring in boxes of stuffing mix, grabbing plastic jars of grape jelly and large bottles of honey, then hotfooted it across three other aisles. He ducked down the end of the canned soup/pasta/meat section, picked up entire cases of canned tuna stored in box lids, and dropped them in the cart, he also had the presence of mind to grab all the cardboard display boxes for the tuna pouches and poured them in too, then backtracked two aisles to the combination cereal/baking aisle where he proceeded to toss in a little bit of everything: pancake mix, bottles of syrup, big bags of baking chips, a 10-pound bag of powdered milk, bags of brown and powdered sugar, he was tossing in bottles of cooking oils when somebody sponsoring the grab told him there was 30 seconds left and he had to get back to the register.

"Already?" Herrmann asked in disbelief.

No matter, he ran with the cart to the end of the aisle and back around the front of the store again, and as somebody counted down the last few seconds, Herrmann just reached the checkout lane, then at the last second grabbed two boxes of candy bars from the display behind him and tossed them on top. The checkers had been working nonstop since the grocery grab began, scanning and bagging and loading everything into large crates. Everybody was standing around eagerly waiting to find out what the grand total was, Herrmann looked and saw a trolley already loaded down with four crates of food.

"You alright, Herrmann?" Casey asked as they saw the older fireman huffing and puffing now that it was all over.

"Is that it?" Herrmann asked confused. It had been everybody's understanding that the winner would have five whole minutes to grab stuff.

"You did very well, Christopher," Chaplain Orlovsky told him.

The receipt spat out of the cash register like a bunch of ticker tape. The cashier tore it off and announced the total of the groceries with tax was, "$1,174.89."

Everybody cheered and roared and applauded, Herrmann just looked around like he was in a daze.

Two trolleys were loaded with everything and the checkers started to wheel them outside, once everybody got past the sliding doors, Herrmann stopped them and told them, "Hold it guys, put it in that car over there."

When everybody at 51 had agreed to enter the drawing, it had been decided that if one of them would win, whatever they got would go to Orlovsky since he knew the people who would need the food the most with the holidays approaching.

"I thank you greatly, Christopher," the chaplain said as he shook Herrmann's hand, "And the church thanks you."

"Eh, don't mention it, padre," Herrmann replied. Then he thought of something and told the checkers, "Hey, hold on!"

He went over to Orlovsky's car and dug through the boxes until he found what he was looking for and took out the 20-pound ham.

"Except this," Herrmann said, "now I got the main course ready for my family's Christmas dinner." He found the tag and just then thought to look at the price. $55.49.

"As per our agreement," Orlovsky said with a smile, "that way we both get something out of this."

Herrmann nodded, "Yeah, besides, a $5 ticket for a free $60 ham, now that's what I call a Christmas miracle."

"Amen," Orlovsky replied as the checkers finished loading the groceries into his car. "I got to hand it to you, Herrmann, I've been coming out to these things for five years, and I've _never_ seen anyone do what you did. What's your secret?"

"Huh? Oh, well," Herrmann said, "two things, first I'm a firefighter so of course I have plenty experience hauling and lugging around large bulky dead weights...secondly, I got 5 kids, this is how I do my grocery shopping every week."

Everybody had a good laugh at that.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Follows 'Secret Santa' and 'Christmas Lights'.

Christmas Shopping

Casey was half asleep and contently warm and comfortable in his bed, buried under the soft covers, the sensation of light against his closed eyelids and he knew it was from the strand of Christmas lights in his window. This was as close to perfect as it got.

The door opened and Severide stepped into the room, "Time to get up, Casey, you know what to day is."

Perfect was just ruined. Casey turned over and moaned and pulled the covers up, wanting nothing more than to stay in bed for a few more hours and take advantage of his day off-shift.

But Kelly wouldn't let it go at that so easily. He went over to the bed and despite the blonde man's moans of protest, his half muffled grunts of 'I don't want to, I don't wanna-I don't wanna-I don't wanna', and his attempts to burrow deeper under the blankets, Severide reached around the middle of the human sized lump, grabbed Casey around the waist and dragged the lieutenant out of the bed, the blankets trailing behind him as Casey was forced to his feet and forced to open his eyes and face the day, and the cold floor of his bedroom.

Before Casey could say anything, Kelly told him, "Go get a shower, get dressed, I'll get started on breakfast."

Casey groaned as he dug out a set of clothes, and said with a pronounced whine, "Why do I have to do this?"

"Come on, Casey, it's going to be fun."

"No it's not," Casey whined like a moping child and he knew it and he didn't care.

"You'll have a great time," Severide told him.

"No I won't," Casey replied as he slammed his dresser drawer shut.

"Go get cleaned up," Kelly told him.

Casey grunted and whined incoherently as he headed to the bathroom, eyes still only half open.

* * *

"I don't _want_ to go Christmas shopping," Casey whined as he entered the kitchen dressed and shaved.

Kelly handed him his plate that was already full of scrambled eggs and bacon and said lightly,"But the car's already warmed up," as if that actually was a deciding factor.

"I hate Christmas shopping," Casey said as he sat down to eat. "I never know what to get anybody."

"Nobody likes it," Kelly replied, "it's just one of those things people _have_ to do, and this is the last good day we're going to have weather-wise to do it that we're not on shift, so we need to get out while we can."

Casey sighed, "The store's gonna be crowded."

"That's why we're going early," Kelly said.

"I'll like it when this day is over," Casey said.

* * *

"I hate shopping for people," Casey said as he and Kelly walked through the store looking around at everything, "I never know what to get anybody in general, and to get something for Brett? I don't even know anything about her, how am I supposed to know what to get?"

"Just get her a gag gift," Kelly said.

"I can't do that, what if she gets offended?"

"Then she chose the _wrong_ place to work," Kelly replied.

"I even tried asking Otis and Cruz for some pointers, they got nothing."

"You told them you're buying for Brett?" Kelly asked.

"I didn't know what else to do," Casey answered.

Kelly chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Big surprise you won't get anywhere with the two _guys_ she's rooming with. You want to find out about a woman, you have to ask her girl friend."

"She doesn't _have_ one," Casey pointed out.

"Then that's something you can get her," Kelly said jokingly.

"What're you getting Capp?" Matt asked.

"I honestly have _no_ idea," Kelly answered.

"_Him_ a gag gift would work for," Casey said.

"Yeah, but what?"

For some reason Casey found himself saying, "How about a rubber chicken?"

Kelly looked at him like he'd lost his mind, "Huh?"

"They have them in the pet section with the chew toys, if you really want to be sadistic, get him one and take the squeaker out, then he'll spend all his time trying to figure out what's wrong with it," Casey said.

Kelly started laughing, "You have a sadistic mind, Matt, you know that?"

"Yeah, but it's not helping me find something for Brett," Casey replied.

"How about that?"

Casey followed the direction of Severide's finger and then turned back and punched Kelly in the arm when he saw Severide pointing to the women's lingerie section.

"What?" Kelly asked.

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"First of all I don't know her size," Casey said.

"Well she doesn't look all that _small_ to me, maybe a medium?" Kelly offered.

Casey punched him again.

"If I did that, then she _would_ get offended," Casey told him.

"Well it's a safe bet it's something she doesn't already have," Kelly suggested.

"You're horrible."

"I know," Kelly said proudly.

"Well," Casey said, "let's split up and meet at checkout."

"Good idea, we can do more damage that way," Kelly replied with a sly smirk on his face as he turned the corner and went in the opposite direction.


	8. Chapter 8

Goody Goodies

"Sorry I'm late," Kelly called out as he entered the apartment and kicked the door shut behind him. He held up one of the grocery bags he was holding and told Casey, "I got the steaks for dinner, I'll start the potatoes and..."

The pained moans Casey was making from where he sat leaned back against the couch drowned out whatever Kelly was about to say and it was only at that time that Severide actually saw Casey and could see he appeared to be in some kind of agony. Kelly dropped the bags and crossed over to the couch.

"What's wrong, Casey?"

A small whining whimper escaped Casey as he pressed one hand against his eyes and told Kelly, "Forget about dinner, I can't eat it, I can't eat _anything_."

"What's wrong, are you sick?" Kelly asked curiously.

Casey moaned again and his whole body grimaced, "I'm an idiot."

"Casey, what's-wrong?" Kelly tried to get a definitive answer.

Matt whined again and got to his feet and motioned for Kelly to follow him to the kitchen.

Kelly wasn't sure what was going on, but he picked up the grocery bags and followed Casey.

The light was on in the kitchen and among the first things Kelly saw was an empty box on the table. It looked slightly familiar, he stepped over to the table and examined it closer and realized it was the bakery box the Christmas cookies were in that they'd gotten yesterday at the store.

Kelly felt his eyebrows climb halfway up his forehead as he exclaimed in disbelief, "You ate _all_ of them?"

That wasn't entirely true, they'd each had a few the day before when they got home with them, but the fact remained Casey must've eaten close to 30 cookies.

"Shit, Casey," Kelly looked at him, "Do I need to call an ambulance? Do I need to take you to Med?"

By itself, Kelly wouldn't have been too worried about this incident, if it weren't for the fact he knew Casey had already eaten several pieces of fudge one of the neighbors had made, and the top layer of a box of cordial cherries earlier that day, and he was worried what the combination of the two was going to do to Casey.

Matt shook his head, "No, no hospital, no ambulance."

"Are you gonna puke?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know," Casey moaned.

Kelly closed his eyes for a second and merely nodded. "Okay, okay," he grabbed Casey by the wrist, "Come on, let's get you to bed and you can sleep it off."

Casey continued to moan and whine as they made the short trip from the kitchen to the bedroom. Kelly pulled down the covers, got Casey settled on the edge, stepped into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water.

"You know the routine, drink this, it'll help the sugar pass through your system quicker," Kelly said as he handed the glass to Matt.

"I can't drink that."

"Yes you can, just sip it," Kelly told him.

Slowly, begrudgingly, Casey managed to drink the water, and when the glass was empty Kelly took it and pushed Casey to lay down, and drew the covers over him.

"I'm sorry, Kelly."

Severide merely nodded, "It's okay, you just take it easy, you'll feel better tomorrow."

"I'm an idiot, I don't know why I did it. I knew...after the first few I knew to stop, but I didn't, and I don't know why."

"Don't worry about it," Kelly decided not to take any chances and he put the wastebasket by the side of the bed, aligned with Casey's pillow above. He stroked his hand over the back of Casey's head a couple times and told the blonde lieutenant, "You go to sleep and rest, if you need anything just holler."

Casey groaned as he turned one way and the other, trying to actually get comfortable but not having much luck. Kelly turned off the lights, but he left the blind open so the distant lights outside could shine in for a little light during the night. Then he left the room, and headed back to the kitchen. There wasn't any point in making the steaks now. He put them in the fridge and took out some stuff to make himself a sandwich.

* * *

"Hey, how're you feeling?" Kelly asked Casey the next morning as he wandered into the kitchen.

"Better," Casey said quietly. He accepted the mug of coffee offered and slowly drank it. "Still feel stupid."

"Don't worry about it, Casey."

"I knew better, I knew I'd make myself sick if I kept eating the cookies, but I just didn't," Casey said as he sat down at the table, "I don't know why."

"Well look at it this way, they were just that good," Kelly said with a small chuckle.

Casey curled up one side of his mouth in a half grimace and shook his head. "They were, but I still knew better."

"Eh, it's only once a year."

"Oh yeah, that makes me feel better," Casey said as he took another sip of his coffee. "Sorry about dinner."

"It's alright. How does steak sound for breakfast?"

* * *

"Hey, what's this?" Kelly asked as they entered the kitchen at 51 and saw a large box on the table.

"Oh, this apparently is from that woman that we pulled out of the car wreck last shift," Cruz said, "it came gift wrapped with a card."

"What is it?" Kelly repeated.

Tony and Otis took the lid off and revealed row after row of chocolate candies in a plastic holder.

"A three pound box of chocolate," Cruz said.

"No!" Casey yelped as he turned on his heel and left the room.

"What was that about?" Otis asked.

"Never mind," Kelly said.


	9. Chapter 9

Santa's Helpers

"One more item," Boden addressed the morning brief at 51, "After shift, everyone is requested to make an appearance at Chaplain Orlovsky's church, they are having a toy program for the underprivileged kids who attend, and need someone to help get them wrapped and ready."

"No offense, Chief," Herrmann raised his hand, "But why do they need us for that? I don't recall them asking us before."

"This is true, the reason is the volunteers have been overwhelmed by a sudden and rather large, anonymous donation of gifts that need to be wrapped before the end of the week. And firefighters are nothing if not happy to offer their services in any way needed, isn't that correct?"

Everybody got out a jumbled collection of agreements with the chief's statement. Everybody got up from the tables and got ready to start shift.

"What's the big deal?" Severide asked, "Wrapping a bunch of toys, how hard can it be?"

"I've seen the way you wrap," Casey commented. "I think we'll have our work cut out for us."

* * *

"Holy..." Otis said, and was all the further he could say given they were in a church.

"What's the big deal?" Casey parroted Severide's words from the other day, as the group of firemen stood in the room and gazed upon the boxes of toys stacked almost to the ceiling.

"We appreciate you guys coming down to help us out," Orlovsky told them. "This has been a genuine windfall for us, most years we're lucky to match one toy to each child, this time running out won't be a concern."

"How much...is here?" Otis asked.

"Oh we tallied it up," the chaplain explained, "50 board games, 30 play sets, 50 dolls, 50 action figures, 50 toy cars and trucks, 30 block sets, 30 stuffed animals, 10 toy trains, 10 oven sets, 10 archeological kits, and 10 piano dance pads."

"Feel sorry for _those_ parents," Cruz murmured to Otis.

"This all came from one person?" Otis asked.

"It's anonymous, so we have no way of knowing," Orlovsky answered, "but, I think so."

"Man, what must all this have cost?" Mouch asked as he stared at the piles.

"About $5,000 give or take," Herrmann answered, being the only one in the group with consistent experience of buying toys at Christmas and having any idea what they cost.

Mouch whistled in astonishment.

"We've been working day and night to get them done in time but I'm afraid it's beyond our abilities," Orlovsky explained.

"Well, it's going to take a while," Casey said as he looked around at all the toys, "but with all of us here, we should be able to get you caught up."

"You have no idea how much we appreciate the help," the chaplain said, "There are the tables, all the paper and bows are in the corner."

"Well, let's get to work," Kelly said.

* * *

2 hours later-

"You're wrinkling the paper too much, it's gonna look crappy."

"Oh shut up."

"You're short on this end, you can see what's in the box."

"I'll short _you_."

"Hey, don't rip the paper."

"Capp, stop pushing the buttons on that tank, it'll run the batteries down."

"You can't put a red bow on red paper, give me a green one."

"You don't need that much paper on the side, cut it down so it'll fold up right."

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

Casey and Severide stood on opposite ends of a separate table, keeping their heads down and their lips pursed so tight together so they didn't bust out laughing at everybody else quickly losing it with the guys they were partnered up with and among the screams and threats, large crinkled balls of discarded wrapping paper got tossed back and forth, and every so often there was a 'bonk' of somebody getting hit with a cardboard tube. The two lieutenants knew it was their job to keep their men in line, but they knew ordering them to knock it off would be a massive exercise in futility. Besides, it was just too funny to watch them all about to lose it as they kept wrapping toys. It felt like they'd been at it forever and everybody's fuses were far past blown, and still there didn't seem to be any end in sight.

"How long do you think it'll be before they start going for each other's throats?" Severide murmured under his breath, trying his damnedest not to bust out laughing.

A disgruntled scream from behind them as somebody discovered the end of the roll of wrapping paper was _just_ too short to actually work, had both of them ducking their heads down even lower so nobody could see they were about to lose it. After that two people started screaming at each other, ending with somebody threatening to choke the other with a roll of ribbon.

"Not long now," Casey responded. "Give me the scissors."

Severide handed them over and Casey spread the blades as far apart as they'd go to curl a ribbon through it. It took three tries and he cut his finger in the process, but he finally got the green ribbon curled in a bow. Somewhere behind them they heard another crumpled ball of paper fly through the air.

"Who threw that?" Herrmann demanded to know.

"I did!" Cruz replied.

"Knock it off."

"Bite me."

"Who said that?" Herrmann wanted to know.

"_I_ did," Otis answered.

* * *

"My back is killing me," Mouch said an hour later when the last toy was finally wrapped and they were done.

"Me too," Herrmann said as he stretched and heard something pop.

Otis groaned for a moment before standing up straight, and telling the others, "I know this was for a good cause and it'll help a lot of people, but I've come to a conclusion. The Grinch was the hero of that story, the Whos were the villains. Wrappings, boxes, bags, ribbons, they're the devil!"

"That's probably why he hated them so much, they probably employed him as a gift wrapper," Mouch commented as he tried to get his back to pop.

"At least we're finally done," Kelly said.

"Hallelujah," Casey dryly commented.

"I'm going home and I'm sleeping until next shift," Cruz said.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Capp added.

"Yeah well, thanks for helping," Casey reached over and patted him on the back, "I know Orlovsky appreciates it."

Matt and Kelly stood back and tried their hardest not to laugh at the huge red bow Casey had slapped on the back of Capp's coat.

Otis groaned and wanted to know, "What kind of sadistic idiot would buy $5,000 worth of toys and dump them all on one church?"

* * *

Hank Voight pulled several long receipts out of the drawer to his desk, leaned back in his chair and chuckled to himself as he glanced over the bills of sale from last week.

There was a knock at his office door and Trudy Platt poked her head. "Hey, Hank, I'm getting ready to clock out."

"Been a good day," Hank replied, "see you tomorrow, Trudy."

"Yeah, see ya..." the desk sergeant paused at the numerous scraps of white printout paper the Intelligence sergeant was thumbing through and inquired, "What's that?"

"Oh..." Voight only half managed to suppress the grin on his face as he shook his head, "Nothing."


	10. Chapter 10

A Long Winter's Nap

"Casey?" Kelly looked around the empty kitchen.

It was going on 8 o' clock in the morning. The coffee was made but there was no other indication that breakfast had been started. He'd heard Casey up and around earlier, and he'd seen the light on in Casey's room sticking out under the door when he came out this morning, but the Truck lieutenant was nowhere to be seen.

"Casey?" he called out again, receiving no response.

Kelly poured himself a cup of coffee and grimaced as he sipped it, it was warm but not _really_ warm, apparently it'd been made quite a while ago.

"Casey?" he headed back to the bedrooms to see if he could figure out what was going on.

The light still shone under the door, Kelly turned the knob and opened it, sticking his head in. "Casey?"

The first thing he saw was the pile of wrapped presents on the floor all stacked on top of each other. Bright metallic paper, curled ribbon, big bows, he glanced over the name tags and saw a couple for Casey's mom, a couple for his sister, a couple for his niece, a couple for Severide, and a few other odds and ends. Looking past that, he saw Matt curled on his side on top of the covers of his bed, shivering in his sleep. Around him were small discarded pieces of wrapping paper, ribbons that had been cut off and thrown away, an open pair of scissors, a couple tubes of wrapping paper that were almost empty, and an empty scotch tape dispenser inches from his pillow.

It took Kelly a couple minutes to realize what happened. Casey must've stayed up half the night wrapping the presents then been too exhausted to climb under the covers and just passed out where he lay. His arms knocked against his ribs and his teeth chattered quietly.

It had been a busy week, hell, a busy month. Casey had been taking extra shifts all month long to fill in for First Watch's lieutenant who was out sick, also because he needed the extra money with the pending end of the year expenses that would pile up soon. Neither of them had gotten an early start on their Christmas shopping and Kelly still hadn't gotten his stuff wrapped because there just never seemed to be any time in the day to get it done around everything else going on. Clearly Casey had reached the same conclusion and solved it the only way he knew how, to stay up all night getting it done.

Kelly stepped over to the bed quietly, carefully picked up all the odds and ends from his gift wrapping venture, then grabbed the flannel quilt discarded at the foot of the bed and draped it over Casey until his whole body was enclosed under the warm fabric. It took a couple minutes for Matt to stop shivering and a small contented hum escaped his throat as he moved around under the quilt to get comfortable.

Kelly picked up the stack of presents, careful not to make the paper rustle against one another, headed towards the door and used his elbow to shut off the light on his way out.

* * *

Casey lay on his back, surrounded by a calming warmth, feeling perfectly content where he was. Well, almost. His mouth felt dry, his tongue was about stuck to the roof of his mouth, he knew that that meant he'd overslept, probably by a great deal. Despite this he didn't feel in any rush to wake up and find out what he'd missed out on for the day.

He tried to sit up and his whole body ached in protest, it didn't want to get up anymore than he did. He forced his eyes open and saw the sunlight shining in the window, but not like morning...like it would be night soon.

"Kelly?" he called out as he tried to get up again.

The door opened and Severide stepped in, "Hey, Casey, how're you doing?"

"Wha' time is it?" Casey rubbed his eyes.

"4 o' clock."

"What?" Casey was frantic, "why didn't you wake me up?"

"Because any idiot could see you were exhausted and needed to rest," Kelly told him. "How long were you up wrapping presents?"

Casey grumbled as he tried to remember, "4:30...5..."

"That's a long time."

Casey grumbled again as he rolled over and buried half of his face in the pillow, "I hate wrapping presents, I've never been any good at it. They've looked like a 5-year-old did them since I was 10."

"Well they look very good to me," Kelly commented.

"I had to redo all of them three times for them to finally look right," Casey told him.

"No wonder you were up all hours," Severide responded.

"And you just let me sleep all day?" Casey accused him.

"You've been running yourself ragged all month, and, much as people like to forget with the holidays coming up, it _is_ still flu season...if you don't start getting some rest you'll be sick in bed, you needed to sleep."

Casey grumbled tiredly as he poked at a sharp piece of sleep crust jabbing the corner of his eye.

"Since there's nothing we had to do anyway," Kelly said, "what do you say we just get takeout for dinner and watch TV?"

Casey looked at him for a minute as he considered, then shrugged, "Sure, why not?"


	11. Chapter 11

Christmas

A/N: A followup to White Thanksgiving. Sorry it's late.

Kelly made his way into the apartment and kicked the door shut behind him, shaking off the snow that had fallen on him from the short trip from the car to the front door. A typical Chicago Christmas, there'd probably be 8 inches of snow out there tomorrow morning.

As he shrugged off his coat, before he could even get a word out his attention was suddenly drawn to the image of Matt Casey curled in a ball on the couch, asleep.

"Casey?"

It was only 8 o' clock, surely Casey wasn't getting sick. That would be the last thing they needed.

He was halfway to the couch when he smelled something, and instead he went into the kitchen and looked around. The room reeked of celery, but all the dishes were done, the stovetop and the table were cleaned, but the oven was on. Kelly turned the light on and pulled the door open and saw a turkey wrapped in foil in a heavy roasting pan sitting on the bottom shelf, the top shelf had been removed to accommodate it.

Kelly shut the door, then went over to the fridge and peered in. Large containers stacked the shelves with mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes already mashed and just waiting to be browned with marshmallows the next day, a pack of Hawaiian rolls being kept fresh until tomorrow.

Ever since Thanksgiving, Casey had insisted he wasn't going to forget at Christmas, and swore they'd do it right this time. And he'd definitely been prepared, he'd gone out and bought all the groceries a week early to make sure they didn't have a slip-up like last time. And Kelly knew he was going to do it, but they'd planned to get everything ready together when Kelly got home that night.

So what had happened?

Kelly returned to the living room and went over and nudged Casey to wake him up. The lieutenant tiredly mumbled but didn't open his eyes.

"Casey, wake up."

"Hmmm?"

"You alright?"

Casey blinked a couple times and tiredly nodded, "Yeah, yeah, fine..."

"What's going on?"

Casey tiredly smirked and answered, "I made sure I didn't forget anything this time."

"You knew I was coming home to help you, you didn't have to do everything yourself," Kelly told him.

Casey closed his eyes again and yawned, "Didn't want to take the chance an' forget something...now it's all ready for tomorrow."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Kelly asked.

Casey weakly nodded, "Yeah...yeah, just gonna rest for a minute..."

Even Kelly knew better than that. In five minutes Casey was dead to the world, and though this wasn't how he'd planned for Christmas Eve to go, Kelly knew there wasn't much point in leaving him there. So he put his firefighter training to good use and carried Matt to the bedroom and got him settled under the covers. He looked at the blonde man breathing slowly and rhythmically, completely unaware of anything at that point. As Kelly reached to shut off the light he murmured a quiet, "Merry Christmas, Casey."

* * *

Matt's eyes opened and he shot up in bed before he realized the noise that had woken him up was Freddie Mercury singing "Thank God it's Christmas". He looked around and saw the sun coming in the window and saw Severide standing over him, laughing.

"What the hell, Kelly?" Casey asked as he struggled to fully come around.

Kelly merely shrugged and responded, "What? It's my favorite song."

Casey reached over and tried to punch him.

"What happened?" Casey asked.

"Well you slept clear through Christmas Eve," Kelly told him.

"What?" Casey tried to think back and grimaced, "Oh man..."

"Hey, we still got today to enjoy before we go back on shift," Kelly said. "And the turkey looks great."

Casey slowly inhaled as he wracked his brain to remember what he did last night. "I was worried something would come up and it wouldn't get done in time."

"Well, it will be," Severide responded, "You did a great job."

"Thanks."

Casey pushed the covers back and got out of bed, and followed Kelly out to the living room.

* * *

Casey took a minute before the big meal to actually look around at everything as if he couldn't believe he'd actually pulled it off. For a month the back of his mind had constantly been nagged by the idea that something would happen, something somewhere would go wrong and they'd be in the same position they were at Thanksgiving, without a complete and traditional dinner. Granted traditional was a term open to interpretation for both of the men, and Kelly had managed to pull it out out of the fire last time and it actually turned out well. Still, Casey hadn't wanted to go through that again, he'd been determined everything would go right for Christmas. And as he looked around the kitchen at every available space on the stove top, the counter and the table with food, he realized that it actually had, but it still took a few minutes to finally sink in.

"Casey?"

Severide's voice drew him out of his thoughts and he realized he was standing by the table with a plate in his hand resting flat against his thigh.

"You okay, buddy?"

Casey looked at him and nodded, "Yeah...sorry."

The turkey had already been carved earlier, the two men dished up slices of meat, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and Hawaiian rolls, two pies, one pumpkin and one cherry, were currently in the oven and would be done later. Once their plates were loaded down wit has much food as they could hold without anything falling off, the two lieutenants relocated to the living room and sat on the couch to enjoy their meal in peace while they watched another repeat of 'A Christmas Story' on TV.

"Merry Christmas, Matt," Kelly said suddenly, surprising Casey.

He blinked, then replied, "Merry Christmas, Kelly."


End file.
